The announcement took up just two seconds of the keynote address at yesterday’s Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference, but it seems that the iOS 9 update of HealthKit will finally add menstrual cycles to the enormous list of trackable data it can follow.
The oh-so-brief screenshot flashed up on the big display implies that the app will be able to record the duration and (er) intensity of menstrual flow. And perhaps the much-touted proactivity they’re embedding in the OS will be able to warn us that it’s time to throw some more tampons in the handbag.
But although it was described as a “reproductive health” tracker, there’s no word yet whether it’ll track other data related to women’s fertility, such as basal temperature, the consistency of cervical mucus, or let us record when we have sex. Or whether it’ll address the male end of the equation—is there a market for a sperm motility app?
Update: 6/9/15 5:20 PM
Perusing the newly-released HealthKit Developer Library shows that the app will also track body temperature and the consistency of cervical mucus, and let women log the results of commercial ovulation tests.
Contact the author at diane@io9.com.